


lost at sea

by tzushi



Category: Life Is Strange (Video Game)
Genre: F/F, Fluff, Pirates, Treasure Hunt, because??? I can, pricefield week, saved arcadia bay AND bae
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-10-08
Updated: 2019-10-08
Packaged: 2020-11-27 21:48:12
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,252
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20955428
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/tzushi/pseuds/tzushi
Summary: Max was planning for a relaxing visit back at Arcadia Bay. Apparently Chloe had other plans.Like going on a treasure hunt.





	lost at sea

**Author's Note:**

> pricefield week day 2: pirates / partners
> 
> so this one is definitely better than the one i wrote for day 1, considering that i wrote that in the span of life half an hour and i actually worked on this one ,, but whew it's done!

Two years ago, when Max had traveled back through the butterfly photo, she realized that she couldn’t sacrifice Chloe, so she had managed to step in between her and Nathan, taking the bullet instead. Due to Max’s short stature, the bullet pierced higher than it would’ve if it had hit Chloe, just missing any major organs. That coincidence is what kept Max alive and breathing.

After being arrested by the police for possession of a gun on school property, along with being underage, Nathan broke down and confessed about the Dark Room. The police found the barn and put Mark Jefferson behind bars for a lifetime. They found Rachel’s body, and got help for the girls who had been taken by Jefferson. That saved Kate’s life, and Victoria instantly took down the video and tried to amend bonds with the girl. Kate, being as kindhearted as she is, forgave Victoria, and the two became close friends.

By stepping between Chloe and Nathan, Max had apparently appeased the storm. Chloe was bulletless and Arcadia Bay remained in one piece, so she counted it as a win, even if she couldn’t walk for almost three months and her time powers had mysteriously gone missing.

When Max was in the hospital, Chloe didn’t leave her side once. They quickly got their apologies out of the way, and Max ended up explaining the whole time travel situation to Chloe. At first, Chloe didn’t believe her, due to her lack of powers. But once Max named exactly every poster on the wall of Chloe’s bedroom (which caused Chloe to blush immensely and call her a perv), along with the situation that happened between Chloe and Nathan at the bar, the punk was inclined to believe her. Pair that with the amount of emotion Max held, and the fact that she had never been a good liar, Chloe knew she was telling the truth.

Once Max had been released from the hospital, left with a large scar from the bullet and the surgery they had to do, the best friends grew closer. Eventually, they started dating, and once Max had graduated from Blackwell they hit the road to L.A. and bought a shitty apartment. Shitty, but perfect.

_(“I love your scar. Now my girlfriend’s a total badass!”_

_“I wasn’t a badass when I could time travel? I had to get shot to be badass?”_

_“Well...”)_

David and Chloe stopped going at each other’s throats (he helped Chloe fix her truck, and even though Chloe refused to admit it, she was so glad that they were actually bonding), the couple came out to their parents and were received kindly, and they all kept in touch with their friends from Arcadia Bay.

Two years passed by in a breeze, Max getting a job as an apprentice under a famous photographer while attending UCLA, and Chloe getting a job as a tattoo artist who’s work was slowly making its mark in the world of art.

Eventually, the second anniversary of ‘the Week that Never Happened’ (“Max, we should trademark that!”) rolled around, and Chloe insisted that they go down to visit Arcadia Bay. And so off they went, calling Joyce and David in advance to make sure they were allowed to stay over for a few days. Joyce was absolutely ecstatic to be able to see the girls again, so she invited them to stay over with open arms.

When they arrived, Chloe burst up to her bedroom, leaving Max alone with Joyce and David as they talked her ear off, asking about how she was doing, about school, about her job. She fumbled out responses, not ready for being put on the spot, and eventually she was allowed to go join Chloe upstairs.

Max was planning for a relaxing visit back at Arcadia Bay, maybe visiting the lighthouse, Blackwell, meeting up with Kate in Portland (but not going to American Rust. Not going near the train tracks. Not stepping close to the photography classroom. She couldn’t handle that). Apparently Chloe had other plans.

Chloe was rummaging around her bedroom, running to and fro while Max sat on Chloe’s desk, scrolling through her phone. They had been in the house for half an hour and Chloe had already trashed her pre-cleaned room.

“Remind me again, what are you doing?” Max called from across the room as Chloe dug through the closet.

“Searching!” Chloe shouted in response, as if that reassured Max in any way.

They fell back into a comfortable silence.

“Aha!” Chloe suddenly exclaimed, causing Max to jump as she pulled a crumpled piece of paper out from underneath her mattress. “I found it!”

Max glanced up from her phone, warily eyeing the paper. “Found what?”

“We buried a pirate chest when we were, like, nine!” Chloe exclaimed, holding the map up as if it was a trophy. “This has to be the map! Dude, we totally need to go and dig this up!”

Max furrowed her eyebrows as she tried to recall the memory. She couldn’t recall _ever_ burying something for the future, except that time capsule that they dug up before Max had moved to Seattle. William and Joyce definitely wouldn’t let them bury more than one box of trash in the ground.

“Are you sure?” she asked as she gently plucked the map from Chloe’s hands. “This doesn’t look familiar at all. Really.” She flipped the map around, trying to read it. “God, Chloe, your map-making skills were awful.”

“Hey!” Chloe exclaimed as she wrapped her arms around Max’s waist from behind and rested her chin on Max’s head, sounding genuinely hurt. “That’s clearly the trail by the lighthouse, can’t you tell?”

“It looks like you just scribbled on a piece of paper and called it a day,” Max stated and Chloe grumbled as she released the girl, snatching the map back from the shorter girl’s hands.

“Whatever,” she mumbled as she shoved it in her jean pocket, “Let’s go dig it up. Find out what we buried.”

Max giggled, rolling her eyes. “Yeah, yeah. Let’s go, then.”

Chloe’s sulking was instantly discarded for the bright smile on her face, bouncing up and down on her heels. “Perfect!” she exclaimed, grabbing Max’s hands. “I already have li’l kiddie shovels in the truck! Let’s go!”

Max furrowed her eyebrows, asking, “How long have you been carrying shovels in your truck?”, only to be ignored and tugged out of the house.

* * *

“Captain Bluebeard and First Mate Max are back to take over the world!” Chloe shouted as soon as they reached the bottom of the trail at the lighthouse, all but jumping out of the car after snatching two tiny children’s shovels. She pulled the crumpled paper out from her pocket, holding it close to her face to examine it.

“Don’t you mean Arcadia Bay?” Max quietly questioned from behind the girl, a small smile on her face.

“First Arcadia Bay,” Chloe stated, raising her head to dramatically look into the distance. “And then: the _world_!” She looked over her shoulder to Max, giving her a smile so bright it could outshine the sun. Max’s heart felt like it exploded, and all she wanted to do in that moment was hug Chloe and never let go. She managed to hold herself back, though.

“So, _Captain_, lead the way,” Max said, skipping up to Chloe’s side and intertwining their hands. “Let’s find this mystery treasure.”

Chloe snickered, tugging Max forward as they headed up the hill in calm silence. It was around five in the evening by now, the sun setting behind the ocean. The golden hour. (Max remembers timelines that never happened, and grips Chloe’s hand just a bit tighter).

They reach the top of the hill, and Chloe looks to Max with a genuine smile, a hidden look in her eyes. Max loves Chloe’s smiles.

“I think we buried it underneath the bench,” she states, showing Max the messy map. If Max squinted her eyes and tilted her head, she could see something that looked roughly like a bench, with dark red ‘X’ drawn underneath it. She furrows her eyebrows.

“Under the bench? Wouldn’t it have been unearthed by now, with all the foot-traffic?” Max asks and Chloe simply shrugs.

“Guess we buried it hella deep, then,” she casually responded, as if she didn’t have a care in the world. As if she wasn’t worried about a treasure that was apparently ‘so important’ going missing. As they walk closer and closer to the bench, though, she notices the way that Chloe nervously bites her lip, the way her forehead slightly creases in worry. Maybe Max really got into her head about it going missing.

“I’m sure it’s still there,” Max reassures the girl, but her words don’t really seem to soothe Chloe that much. She just nods.

They reach the bench, and Chloe gets down on her knees. She sees a small mound of dirt underneath the bunch, looking like it had been moved quite recently. Shit. Had someone dug up the treasure? Who else would even know about it?

Chloe stares at Max for a good few seconds as the girl kneels down next to her, looks of worry and fear and overall nervousness crossing her face. With a small inhalation through her nose, she starts digging right where the new mound of dirt is.

“Ready to see what our old treasure is, First Mate?” she asks with a raspy voice, a pirate imitation, but the way her voice shakes clearly gives way to her nerves. Max felt her heart clench. She hoped whatever was buried here wasn’t too important. Why else would Chloe be so nervous?

Max ‘arr’s back in response, but it barely gets a smile out of Chloe. Only moments later, the noise of plastic hitting something solid sounds, and Chloe takes in a sharp breath.

“Stand back, First Mate. We found our treasure, but it may be tampered with,” Chloe declares, reaching into the small, shallow hole to grab whatever is in there. Max does as told, standing up and taking a step back. She sees Chloe pick up a small box from the ground and feels relief flood through her system- it’s still there. Good. She didn’t want Chloe to be upset, especially when she seemed so nervous about this.

It finally hit her when Chloe turned around on her knees, looking at Max with a face full of hope, nervousness, _love_.

“Maxine Caulfield,” Chloe says in a shaky voice, and all Max can mumble out is a quiet, shocked ‘oh...’, “My First Mate, my best friend, my favourite person in the world. You... you did so much for me. Even when I didn’t deserve it. You _literally_ teared space and time apart for me. How many other girls can say that about their girlfriends?”

Max feels tears slipping down her cheeks, her heart clenching. God, she loved Chloe Price.

“So, uhm, Max...” Chloe cleared her throat as she opened the box, revealing a small, silver ring with a jolly roger engraved in it (Dog, that’s _so_ Chloe, and Max can’t hold back a smile through her tears), lined with small diamond gems. “Will you... will you be my partner in time... forever?”

Max is silent, trying to force the words ‘yes’ out of her mouth. But she’s still crying, and she can only stare at the woman that she’s in love with in stunned silence.

“Uh, was that- was that too hard to understand?” Chloe warily asked, eyes widening. “Max, I... I asked to to marry me. Unless, I mean, you don’t want to, so-”

Max fell to her knees, wrapping her arms around Chloe’s shoulders as she buried her head into the girl’s neck. “Dog, yes! Of course, yes, dork. Absolutely.”

She heard Chloe let out a large sigh of relief, feeling the girl’s body deflating as she returned the hug. “Oh thank god. You were so quiet- I thought I fucked up, or something. Way to give a girl a heart attack,” she scoffed, but she couldn’t stop herself from giggling.

Max pulled away, looking into Chloe’s eyes with a tearful smile. “I knew we never buried anything up here. You made me think I had memory problems,” she said with a small laugh, gently shoving Chloe’s shoulder. The punk laughed, rolling her eyes.

“I got David to come up here and bury it earlier today, just so it’d stay safe. And then I drew the map as soon as we got here while Joyce and David talked to you. Had to make it look like a child drew it, that’s why it’s so bad,” she laughed.

Max pressed a quick kiss to Chloe’s lips. “You were so nervous. You really thought I’d say no?”

Chloe shrugged once more. “I didn’t think you would, it’s just... such a nerve-wracking thing to do. But... holy shit, you’re my fiancee now! We’re gonna get married!”

Max laughed loudly. “That’s what happens when you get engaged to someone, Chloe. You get married.”

Chloe lightly flicked Max on the forehead, before grabbing her left hand, glancing up and meeting the girl’s eyes.

“Are you gonna let me put this on?” she asked, recklessly waving the ring box around. Max smiled even brighter, splaying out her fingers. Chloe plucked the ring out of the box, gently sliding it onto Max’s ring finger.

Max looked up at her best friend, her Captain, her world, her everything- her _fiancee_.

“I can’t wait to marry you.”

**Author's Note:**

> ty for reading ^^ comments and criticism are highly appreciated <3


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